Statement by Socialist Alternative Merseyside
Socialist Alternative Merseyside members share everybody’s horror after seeing the scenes on Water Street yesterday. In what should have been a day of celebration of our city and its people, instead we saw a vehicle plow through the crowds in a shocking act of violence.
As of now, there still is not a huge amount of information as to why this happened. However that didn’t stop the far right – the likes of ‘Tommy Robinson’ and others – spreading racist lies over social media. False claims circulated of the perpetrator being a migrant or a refugee.
Even after it was proven the attacker was in fact a 53-year old white British man from the area, this hasn’t stopped the far-right rumour mill from continuing. The racists will continue trying to use these horrifying events, regardless of what is proven.
Unfortunately, we can’t stop this threat by simply ignoring it. We’re in a climate of a growing and confident right, whose agenda of attacking migrants, trans people and other oppressed groups is increasingly being implemented. We need to mobilise now.
Community and football fans’ organisations, trade unions and the left locally should now take the initiative to call a mass demonstration – of solidarity with the families, standing against racist hatred and showing the unity of working-class people of all races and nationalities in the face of violence.
Worrying developments like this underscore what we have long said. To counter the rising right, we need a new left-wing party, rooted in working-class communities and struggles, with socialist policies to counter both Starmer, Farage and the right. Our fight is for a fundamentally different kind of society, based on meeting people’s needs over profit, as well as bringing an end to violence and all oppression.
